


reviving

by frogmango



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Also tattoos, M/M, i stan two boys who don't know how to use their words, oh and obv they don't meet while in yumenosaki or anything okay whatever i make my own rules
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 07:42:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20597156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frogmango/pseuds/frogmango
Summary: What Ibara thinks next is:“I want to leave this place with you. I want to find a purpose, something worth holding onto. I want to find somewhere we can both thrive, under our own terms… Together.”What comes out is: “Come with me or never speak to me again.”Ibara struggles with communication. Yuzuru doesn't give up. They're both a little bit stupid.





	reviving

“Ne, instructor.”

Yuzuru makes a face. “Quit calling me that. You’re too old for foolish nicknames.”

Ibara sticks out his tongue, head leaning out from his bunk so he can watch Yuzuru above him. “We’re not old.”

“It feels like it.” Yuzuru says with a sigh, pulling his head back onto his bunk and out of Ibara’s sight. Ibara frowns, kicking away his covers and climbing the first two steps of the ladder to Yuzuru’s bed.

“What?” Ibara says bluntly. Yuzuru doesn’t respond. With a scowl, Ibara completes his ascent and shoves Yuzuru towards the wall, making room for him to sit cross-legged next to his friend’s body.

“You’re not supposed to be up here.” Yuzuru says, staring at the ceiling. Ibara leans over him, blocking his view. This elicits a frown in the taller boy’s expression, and he reluctantly sits up to glare at Ibara.

“I don’t care if you get in trouble, but don’t drag me into it as well. Go back to your own bunk.” he says before laying back down. Ibara smirks.

“Make me.” 

A glint flashes through Yuzuru’s eyes, and Ibara barely dodges the hand aiming for his wrist. “You’re going to have to be quicker than that.” he says, kicking Yuzuru’s hand away. Yuzuru takes the opportunity to seize Ibara’s ankle and pull his legs out from under him, sending Ibara’s upper half teetering dangerously over the edge of the bunk. Yuzuru’s grip on his leg is all that keeps him from falling backwards onto the floor. 

“Should I let go? That would certainly send you back where you belong.” Yuzuru says in a low voice, staring down at Ibara’s dangling form. Ibara grins up at him. Maybe it’s the blood flowing to his head; maybe it’s what he’s wanted to say all along. Regardless of reason, his mouth moves before his brain can stop it.

“We should get out of here.” he says.

Yuzuru’s grip loosens slightly, making Ibara flail his arms in search for some sort of grip. Realizing this, Yuzuru pulls Ibara up with a groan, collapsing backwards once his bunkmate is safely on the mattress. “What,” Yuzuru says, panting, “What are you thinking, talking like that? What if someone had heard?”

“The only person who heard is the only one I give a shit about. I _said_, we should get out of here. We’ve learned everything that can be learned here. We can train ourselves somewhere else.” Ibara says, leaning back. “Aren’t you sick to death of this place?”

“I can’t go with you. You know that.” Yuzuru replies sharply, biting his cheek. 

Ibara scowls. “You can. You just don’t want to. You’d rather live your life as someone’s lap dog than be a free stray.”

“Ibara.”

What Ibara thinks next is: _ “I want to leave this place with you. I want to find a purpose, something worth holding onto. I want to find somewhere we can both thrive, under our own terms… Together.” _

What comes out is: “Come with me or never speak to me again.” 

Yuzuru rolls over. Ibara returns to his own bunk. The very next day, Yuzuru leaves.

But not with Ibara.

* * *

Ibara meets with strangers every day. But this stranger is no stranger at all.

Their eyes meet, and at the same time, they both glance downwards.

Curled up Yuzuru’s arm is a long, winding snake, inked in wines and reds. Ibara catches the briefest glimpse of the creature’s eyes - striking blue, like opals - before Yuzuru firmly tugs his sleeve down. Too slowly, Ibara moves to do the same, but it’s too late. Yuzuru’s eyes certainly caught sight of the midnight blue arrow inked on his skin, tipped in mauve liquid that could be blood or something else entirely. 

This was certain to be an awkward reunion.

Ibara’s assistant closes the door behind Yuzuru, and the latch has barely hitched when Yuzuru is crossing the room in long strides and slamming his mouth onto Ibara’s. Their teeth clack together, and Ibara instinctively pulls back, his body hitting the wall behind him. 

“Yuzu-” 

“Shut up.” Yuzuru says breathlessly, hand gripped in a fist on the collar of Ibara’s shirt. “Do you- do you have _any_ idea how long I’ve been looking for you?” Not waiting for an answer, he crashes their lips together once more, and Ibara can’t help but respond in kind. In an instant, Ibara is thirteen years old again, and his office turns into a dark corner of the training facilities. But Yuzuru is still Yuzuru, and it’s the same hands digging into his hair and freeing it from its ponytail. His glasses are being crushed between their faces, and with a groan, Ibara forces himself to pull away once more. 

No tenderness. That had always been the unspoken promise between them, all those years they had been together. The promise that Ibara broke the night before Yuzuru left. 

That’s why he’s surprised to see tears on the corners of Yuzuru’s eyes as he stares into them. 

“You asshole.” Yuzuru says.

“I didn’t think you’d come looking.” Ibara replies. 

“You _asshole._” Yuzuru repeats. And just like that, it’s as if the fight drains from him, and he slumps away from Ibara with a scowl, sliding into Ibara’s chair and spinning in place. His pout is almost child-like, and if the circumstances were different Ibara might have found it adorable.

“I didn’t think you wanted to see me again.” Ibara says at last when the silence becomes too much to bear. “Your leaving seemed to say as much.”

“You’re an asshole _and_ an idiot.” Yuzuru says. “I didn’t leave you. You left me.”

Ibara frowns back at him. “No…” he says slowly. “That night. After I said… _that._ You were gone by the next day.” _But not with me._

Yuzuru buries his face in his hands. “For fuck’s sake. Of _course_ it’d be something like this. This whole time, I’ve been plagued by what I might have done wrong. You _idiot!_ Think back. What day was that?”

Ibara’s frown deepens. “It was a Saturday, wasn’t it? But what does that have to do with-”

_Oh god. Oh _fuck. 

“It was _Visitation Day_, you complete _imbecile!_ I didn’t go anywhere! I was coming right back!” Yuzuru’s hands slam on the table as he stands up, and Ibara throws a nervous glance towards the door. Yuzuru doesn’t seem to care as he grips Ibara by the collar once more - a position all too familiar between the two of them. “Unlike you, I wasn’t a completely impulsive bastard! I wanted to sleep before making such a radical decision! But I wasn’t shooting you down!” Their faces are so close now their noses brush, and Yuzuru’s gaze pierces into Ibara’s very heart. “Imagine my surprise when I come back and _you’re_ gone. Except _you_ didn’t come back.”

Ibara thinks he’d very much like to scream right now. 

“What was I supposed to do?! I thought you left! Why else would I have stayed in that miserable place for even a second longer?!” he yells, wrapping his hand around Yuzuru’s wrist. It’s moments like these he thanks the heavens that his office is soundproofed. They wrestle in place for a moment, teeth gritted as each tries to push the other away while not relenting their own grip. In their scuffle, their sleeves slip down, and they are both confronted once more with the fact that neither had been quite able to forget the other. Jeweled snake eyes stare at Ibara, and the pink-tipped arrow points accusingly at Yuzuru.

For a moment, they’re silent. Then, Yuzuru sighs and releases his grip on Ibara’s collar. “How long have you had it?” he asks. He brushes his fingers over the ink on Ibara’s arm, making Ibara’s breath hitch in his throat. He forces himself to swallow. 

“I had it done when I was sixteen. An acquaintance of an acquaintance. I’ve had it touched up since then.” He hesitates for a moment, then, more gently than he’d ever been with Yuzuru, he places his hand over the snake’s head. “What about you?” 

Yuzuru laughs, a slightly hollow, but still amused laugh. “The very first iteration was a stick-and-poke. I got it done when I still thought you were coming back. I couldn’t wait to show you. The second you asked me again - because you were never anything but persistent - I would just roll up my sleeve and show you my answer. But-”

“But I never came back.” Ibara finishes, sighing. 

“But you never came back.” Yuzuru repeats. “I suppose some naive part of me kept believing you would. I added more and more details, and once I was older I had it professionally redone. But one day I woke up and realized that if I didn’t find you myself, I would never see you again.”

“I’ve always been more trouble than I’m worth.” Ibara says with a self-deprecating laugh, running a hand through his now-mussed hair. 

“Yet somehow I can’t pry myself away from you. Fascinating how that works.” Yuzuru says, the corner of his mouth raising in a half-smile. “Now, I think there’s something you owe me.” 

It’s all so familiar. The games they play and the words they say, always with more meaning than meets the eye. Slowly, Ibara kneels to the ground in front of Yuzuru, then bows his head.

“My apologies.”

This is where Yuzuru would usually yank him upwards, reprimand him again or perhaps silence him with a kiss. However, the brusque movement doesn’t come this time. Instead, with more tenderness than he’d ever been shown, Yuzuru extends an inked arm downwards. After a second, Ibara takes it with his own, and he’s slowly pulled upwards. 

“And where do we go from here?” Ibara asks.

“Where indeed? I was hoping perhaps my apartment. You’ve created a rather stuffy workplace for yourself. And it’s long past time we shared a cup of tea, I think.”

What Ibara thinks next is: _“I can’t believe you came back. I can’t believe you thought I was worth chasing. I’ve missed you so much. I’ve missed us so much. I don’t deserve this. I love you.”_

What comes out is: “I’d like that.”


End file.
